I forgot how much I love steelies

I took off my "hey bro check out my sweet rims" and put on the steelies that I wanted to but was told would not work by the internets. It looks like a real truck now, not a mall crawler, even though it only gets used for real truck stuff. I think I'm going to sell the other ones, I'm in love with the steelies. Just need to get some bowtie center cap stickers since the wheels were off my old GMC suburban. Bonus points for like new Commercial T/A 10 ply E range tires. Steel wheels just look right on trucks.

Trucks and steel wheels go together like breads and butter.

Let's see some pictures I am amazed how much I like steels on a lot of vehicles.

I love seeing all the people in Ottawa (where my folks live) rocking steelies and snow tires. The black steelies just make everything look menacing, even my dad's CR-V.

In reply to sethmeister4:
Canadian Tire steelies for the win.

I like it a lot. I bet they would look even better painted the body color.

The CR-V steelies make almost every modern Honda product look better. My neighbor put a set on his ILX and I kept double-taking on it because I was no longer able to figure out what kind of car it was.

Saw a 2015 WRX today with regular old black steelies too. I like.

edit: Honda should give the guy who designed the CR-V steelies a raise because they look amazing on everything.

I like my (painted) Forester steelies, too.

Even if the Effex doesn't show up:

sethmeister4 wrote: I love seeing all the people in Ottawa (where my folks live) rocking steelies and snow tires. The black steelies just make everything look menacing, even my dad's CR-V.

I just got back from Ottawa, and I was about to post the same thing. You like steelies, you need to visit The Land Of Snow Tires.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

I just got back this past Monday, and I put my dad's steelies on when I was there back at Thanksgiving. They just look so cool with those black wheels... I'm tempted to put a set on my CR-V!

im still angry at myself for selling my widened (8 inch) ford 5 lug steels. i decided id rather keep the convo pro's at the time! i love steelies

I'm backwards from most of you guys on this one... I pretty much refuse to put steelies on anything. Too damn heavy. Makes the car / truck slower, ride worse, etc. I usually just go for a set of attractive, not flashy, alloys.

And for beater wheels, finding a set of OEM alloys that's beat to crap usually isn't too hard. The winter set on the Jeep looks like it's been to hell and back, but they do the job. And they're 2/3rds the weight of a set of steelies in the same size (and these aren't exactly light as alloys go, 22 lbs for a 16x7).

rslifkin wrote: I'm backwards from most of you guys on this one... I pretty much refuse to put steelies on anything. Too damn heavy. Makes the car / truck slower, ride worse, etc. I usually just go for a set of attractive, not flashy, alloys.

yeah, well, that's like, your opinion man.

these were FreeFiddy. I bought the burb for $600 for parts, used the front end on my c1500, sold the engine/trans for $800, scrapped the body and frame for $400, sold the rear axle for $100, scrapped the cat for $80. so wheels/tires = free.

when i put the h2 rear axle in last march, i was scrambling to get parts together and had stuff coming from everywhere. i'd read on the hummer forum that 16" wheels won't clear the rear brake calipers, so i ordered a cheapish set of 17x8 alloys and new tires in the stock size plus some adapters for the front since i had to go from 6 to 8 lugs. so i was rolling on over a grand of wheel/tire combo this year. then the other day i thought - man i bet those guys were probably wrong, and tossed one on the back and it cleared fine. so i put the rest on and love it. i've been contemplating trading it in, rather not leave the almost new hankook dynapro's on it if i do that anyway.

my wife doesn't really approve, she likes the fancy black alloys and white letter tires that i took off. not my problem, she has chrome 18's on hers. she likes fancy wheels, i like understated wheels. she's been driving it for a few weeks since hers is getting the engine replaced.

rslifkin wrote: I'm backwards from most of you guys on this one... I pretty much refuse to put steelies on anything. Too damn heavy. Makes the car / truck slower, ride worse, etc. I usually just go for a set of attractive, not flashy, alloys. And for beater wheels, finding a set of OEM alloys that's beat to crap usually isn't too hard. The winter set on the Jeep looks like it's been to hell and back, but they do the job. And they're 2/3rds the weight of a set of steelies in the same size (and these aren't exactly light as alloys go, 22 lbs for a 16x7).

I tend to agree with you ... though Mom's Fit still has the OEM steelies ... as does my F150 .. now those weigh a berkeleying ton ... as sick as I was, when the snow tires needed swapping to the truck, I had to get a shop to do them ... could barely get the wheels/tires into the back of the truck to take TO the shop ...

as often as the wheels/tires come off my CRX, I'm darned glad that they are alloys and not steel

I prefer steel wheels here in NY. After one winter of whatever crap they spread on the roads, alloy wheels corrode up and leak like crazy from the bead

Really been digging the "pizza cutter" look on 4x4s recently.

Think I'm gonna mount something like those tires the XJ has on the stock steelies on mine when I get around to buying new tires. Need to clean and paint those wheels as well.

I like the look of steelies A LOT on most cars and trucks. If you're gonna be nailing potholes on E36 M3ty winter roads or bouncing over rocks off-road, I'll take the added strength/cheapness vs the lower weight of alloys too.

Steelies and snows go together like Wesson oil and Twister.

This needs to be included in any discussion of steelies:

MMM steelie's

Great that you found something that fit. I searched for a long time for steelies for my Mustang. I ended up finding another set of 15" alloys and using my old set for snow tires. It still took years.

I found some for my Dodge Ram. They made it look like a real truck, I even put truck tires on it.

Is the weight difference that much? When I "upgraded" the Volvo to +1 sized alloys the total weight was exactly the same as the steelies I removed.

bastomatic wrote: Is the weight difference that much? When I "upgraded" the Volvo to +1 sized alloys the total weight was exactly the same as the steelies I removed.

It varies, as alloy wheels range from "pretty light" to "damn heavy", while steelies are almost always "damn heavy". OEM alloys tend to fall more towards the heavy (and durable) end of the spectrum, while aftermarket ones can be anywhere from insanely light and kinda fragile to pretty heavy and very durable.

For my Jeep, a set of 16x7 steelies is 33 lbs. The stock 16x7 alloys are 22 lbs. And to throw things off further, the 17x8 alloys I run in the summer are about 23 lbs, so barely any heavier than the smaller stock ones, as they're a lighter design. 17x8 steelies for it would be about 38 lbs.

For total weight, the tires play into the equation too. It's possible to have a 5lb or bigger difference between the heaviest and lightest tire in a given size.

My steelies

Always preferred steel on my race cars. They may bend a bit (and can be fixed with a hammer) but don't crack and brake like alu ones did. And if you do brake one you more than likely have much bigger issues to deal with.